Buying a faster PC

The Tetrarch

I have two PCs, one a couple of years old with an i7 (Windows 7, PC never connected to the internet), the other about ten years old with a Q6600 processor (Windows 10).

The faster PC was bought for one reason, to do plenty of database work a few times a year.
Programs I've written ran for 22 hours on that faster PC. I write the programs on the slow PC.
In the last few weeks I've started a re-write of the programs.
This re-write will work on sixteen times the data the first program ran (on the major section of the analysis).
I did a lot of work on tuning the original programs and I may be able to tune the new version a little, but I still think I need more PC.

My plan is to junk the ten year old PC (worried about reliability) and transfer the 1.8TB and the 465GB drives from it to the new PC.
This afternoon I tried to buy a new PC from a well known Leinster PC builder.
Their stumbling blocks are
(1) you must buy an SSD
(2) you must buy a hard disk
(3) you must buy security software
(4) you must pick an operating system (Windows 10).
They say they can not put other parts (mine) in their PC, and they can not make/commission a PC without a hard disk/SSD.

My older PC has three drives:
(1) 1863GB SSD Crucial CT2000MX 500SSD1 SCSI Disk Device (1550GB free space)
(2) 465GB Western Digital WDC WD50 00AAKS-00YGA SCSI Disk Device (SATA) (465GB free space i.e. empty)
(3) 111GB Seagate ST3120026A ATA Device (ATA) (23GB free space)

The small Seagate drive is full of old junk, some of which I might move to the other drives, and get rid of that small drive.

This is a guide to what I picked (before I found they made an SSD and a hard disk compulsory buys).
AMD RYZEN THREADRIPPER 1920X - 12 Cores - 3.5GHZ ( 4.0Ghz Turbo) - 38MB CACHE
32GB ADATA XPG GAMMIX 3000MHZ ( 8GB x 4 )
Nvidia GeForce RTX2070 8GB GDDR6 - VR READY
no disks, monitor, or keyboard required by me.
I am not a gamer, although graphics speed has importance (but zero importance in the programs I wrote).

Can I buy a PC without drives?
Ideally I would like to have the PC supplier install my drives in the new PC.
I do not want to buy a new PC with an SSD and a hard disk, then have to clone my bigger SSD to theirs, and put their SSD and hard disk on a shelf.
I have never built/modified a PC.

dotsman

You say you have never built/modified a PC, but how comfortable are you with trying that now? Given the circumstances (you are looking for a very customised solution) and the fact (I assume) you have a lot of time stuck indoors at the moment, do you want to give it a try? It will likely be a lot cheaper (you don't mention how much you have been quoted) and you can build the exact PC you want.

It really is very easy to build a PC, with fear of the unknown being the main reason most people don't try. Besides, you are going to have to at least modify the new PC by transferring over the old drives, and that is really as complicated as it gets.

A few things pop out immediately to me:

• It looks like you are hoping to just transfer over a drive with Windows already installed on it. You may be better off doing a clean install with the new PC as it will be completely new hardware with a whole different set of drivers etc.
• RAM - Is there a reason you are going for 4 x 8? I assume the mother board only has 4 slots (you don't mention what motherboard you are going for). If so, you are better off with 2 x 16, allowing room for future upgrades (especially if you are hoping to get as much life out of your new PC as you got out of the old one!)
• While you indicate you have plenty of free storage space at the moment, is this likely to be the case for the next few years? If the extra space would be of any use, you could always go with a new small nvme for a C: drive (far faster than your current SSD) and then use the existing SSD for secondary applications/files etc. This would also make setting up the new PC a lot easier as no need to backup the drive etc before transferring to the new build.
  Are you sure your SSD is SCSI and not SATA? I haven't seen SCSI in donkeys years and thought it died long before SSD drives became a thing!
• Graphics card - do you mind saying why you need a RTX 2070 if not for gaming? It seems overkill for anything not gaming. If you are going with it, would you consider the Super version? Unless the non-super version is significantly cheaper, the Super version is far superior (and is only a few euro more in most places)

minitrue

I don't think you will find any company willing to ship you a machine without any drive and pretty certainly not willing to install your drives? In normal times you might find a shop willing to fit your drives (likely charging an arm and a leg for the build) but now that might be a bit tough.

The question is how big is your dataset and what is the nature of your processing? It might fit in ram (<128GB is easy and the price scales linearly) and if not then you will likely get much better results from a modern M.2 pci-e NVMe ssd Vs your old Crucial presumably SATA drive.

Next up is why you were looking at a RXT2070 if no games and the programs you wrote don't run on the gpu, something like a 1650 is probably already overkill or even a 1030

Finally do you need Threadripper and how cpu/thread dependant is your program (Vs disk/ram speed). Ryzen 9's are 12 or 16 core and it doesn't sound like you need all the pci-e lanes (and aren't pushing the ram at all though if it's really loads of ram you want and you have the budget maybe you would want Threadripper).

Finally, budget!

Building yourself isn't that tough and certainly popping your own disks in is easy! Depending on the answers (e.g. what you really want/need for your use case, particularly if you really don't need disks at all or if actually you should get something) you might get something suitable from a supplier.

K.O.Kiki

CCL & OverclockersUK will sell you a PC without any drives - just use the configurator/customize option to remove drives.

Instead of RTX 2070 Super, you should request RTX 2060 KO - this particular GPU is binned with the same TU-104 die as the 2070 Super/2080 but available for quite a bit less - good if you don't need 8Gb VRAM.

What's your budget?

minitrue

On any I checked on CCL it just tells me I need to pick an ssd or hd to continue if I remove them both? Looks like overclockers will do it though!

The Tetrarch

dotsman wrote: »

You say you have never built/modified a PC, but how comfortable are you with trying that now? Given the circumstances (you are looking for a very customised solution) and the fact (I assume) you have a lot of time stuck indoors at the moment, do you want to give it a try? It will likely be a lot cheaper (you don't mention how much you have been quoted) and you can build the exact PC you want.

It really is very easy to build a PC, with fear of the unknown being the main reason most people don't try. Besides, you are going to have to at least modify the new PC by transferring over the old drives, and that is really as complicated as it gets.

A few things pop out immediately to me:

• It looks like you are hoping to just transfer over a drive with Windows already installed on it. You may be better off doing a clean install with the new PC as it will be completely new hardware with a whole different set of drivers etc.
• RAM - Is there a reason you are going for 4 x 8? I assume the mother board only has 4 slots (you don't mention what motherboard you are going for). If so, you are better off with 2 x 16, allowing room for future upgrades (especially if you are hoping to get as much life out of your new PC as you got out of the old one!)
• While you indicate you have plenty of free storage space at the moment, is this likely to be the case for the next few years? If the extra space would be of any use, you could always go with a new small nvme for a C: drive (far faster than your current SSD) and then use the existing SSD for secondary applications/files etc. This would also make setting up the new PC a lot easier as no need to backup the drive etc before transferring to the new build.
  Are you sure your SSD is SCSI and not SATA? I haven't seen SCSI in donkeys years and thought it died long before SSD drives became a thing!
• Graphics card - do you mind saying why you need a RTX 2070 if not for gaming? It seems overkill for anything not gaming. If you are going with it, would you consider the Super version? Unless the non-super version is significantly cheaper, the Super version is far superior (and is only a few euro more in most places)

Thanks for the reply.
I am just short of my 70th birthday and wary of trying to build a PC with nil experience.
My data has been entered by hand over about 28 years.
I have heard of copy and paste. This data isn't easily available.
The reason I want speed is I will be testing programs a lot, and at times crunching a few million records. I may be running it again and again.

Doing a clean install.
I would not enjoy trying to load all the programs I have on the current C: drive.
About three months ago I paid someone to clone my old C: drive to the SSD as I was nervous I would mess up.

RAM
The PC supplier lists PCs with motherboard, memory, drives, power, and so on.
What I listed was a cut and past from the PC maker's design.
I would not have the knowledge to decide on a motherboard, processor, memory as I assume they must be compatible.
If buying I might order one part that would be too slow for the other parts.

Drive
CT2000MX 500SSD1 SCSI Disk Device
Manufacturer Crucial
Heads 16
Cylinders 243,201
Tracks 62,016,255
Sectors 3,907,024,065
SATA type SATA-III 6.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ACS3

you could always go with a new small nvme for a C: drive (far faster than your current SSD)
I had to look up NVME. Never heard of it.
Of course I will go for anything that is fast and reliable.

My database is 620,000 records and only 110kb, but when I do the big analysis the numbers could be 3,000,000 records, and 600kb.
A different exercise than the one in the line above compares 400,000 records with 400,000 records and can be 2GB. It isn't just compare one record with another. It takes one record, gathers a pile of data for that record, does the same for the other record, and compares the two mini-databases.
My data is obviously tiny compared to the disk size (one photo from my Nikon camera is almost the same size as my database), but speed of read, write, having stuff in memory as far as possible helps.
My program has a load file of say 3 million records, picks the first one, gets over 2,000+ records for that record, analyses them, puts the result into a results file, goes back to the load file and picks the second record, analyses that, and on and on.

Graphics card
I know that is overkill, but that is what the PC supplier lists in the bundle for that PC.
I have a need to redraw a screen at speed. But that tends to be in bursts of activity a few times a year, perhaps for two weeks, many hours a day.
On an old Dell PC, before my present old PC, slow screen redraw was a pain, and I do not mind paying for speed.
I am not trying to pare down my spend to exactly my needs.

When I go onto a site selling PCs I don't have much idea of what they will do, or how they fit my needs.
I know I want speed, but do not have the knowledge to pick.

The Tetrarch

Thanks for the other replies.
I think I have embarrassed myself enough with my reply above without going for an encore.
Budget is not tight / flexible. The PC I was looking at was about 2,400.
Ideally I want to get securely and reliably up and running with my present programs.

the_syco

I'll have to ask what database program you are using.

Also, what is the extension of the database file? For example, a sample Microsoft Excel file would be called sample.xlsx with xlsx being the extenion.

This information may assist people in finding the correct sort of system for you. A prebuilt gaming system may not be what you require.

K.O.Kiki

€2400 for a Threadripper 1920X is taking the piss - that CPU costs €200 new & came out in mid-2017!

The only reason to go Threadripper is if you're 100% certain you need quad-channel memory support.

TBH it sounds like you would do fine with a Ryzen 7-3700X + cheap GPU.
https://www.cclonline.com/pc/gaming-pcs/delta-pro/ccl-delta-pro-gt-gaming-pc/0704080113/

Customised Delta Pro
CPU AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6GHz
RAM 16GB DDR4 3200MHz
Graphics Radeon RX 5500 XT 4GB
Storage 1000GB Adata XPG SX8200 Pro NVMe SSD

£910.99
or £1,010.99 with Windows 10

And that's probably overkill on the CPU (8-cores/16-threads) & RAM.

Definitely don't re-use your current SSD as the C:\ drive - moving between motherboards it can get screwy.
Better to clean install Windows 10 & migrate/re-install necessary data/programs after.

The Tetrarch

the_syco wrote: »

I'll have to ask what database program you are using.
Also, what is the extension of the database file? For example, a sample Microsoft Excel file would be called sample.xlsx with xlsx being the extenion.
This information may assist people in finding the correct sort of system for you. A prebuilt gaming system may not be what you require.

Ok, more embarrasment.
I am using MicroSoft FoxPro which was out of support in 2015, files .dbf extension.

There are a few of reasons for using it.
No ongoing cost, and reliability.
The most important reason is I use a software package bought in 1993, and took software updates to 2000. At that time they re-wrote the package and changed to a different file type. I stayed with the old version that uses .dbf files. From the start I refused to take their data file updates as their data was poor, and built up the data from about 60k to 620k records. Even their 60k records were error strewn. I sent them a file with 26k records to correct and improve it, and a program they then built into their product (they probably re-wrote it), and suggestions they introduced.
The difficulty with a commercial software package is they have reports and analysis. But I have ideas to test, and unless my ideas match their ideas and other users ideas, they will not end up in the commercial package menus and reports. And do I want to give away my ideas and work to others?
I only use the commercial package now and again to look at things on screen.
About 95% of my time is in FoxPro, about 5% in the commercial package.
The other reason for using FoxPro is I know it in an amateurish fashion. I am not a programmer, but can produce the analysis I want.

It might help understanding if I say thoroughbred horse pedigree analysis is my hobby. I have over 900 horse books, and these are useful researching pedigrees, and building up data. This started in 1992, and I have been down a few analysis dead ends.
I think I can assess the potential of a horse just from its pedigree, and only using the names, generations (i.e. parent, grandparent, great-grandparent and back from that), positions, and genders in the pedigree. I do not even need to know anything about the horses in the pedigree i.e. were they good runners, or did they produce good horses. I could change the names to numbers or XSUL, EYCK, and do the analysis.

The Tetrarch

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

TBH it sounds like you would do fine with a Ryzen 7-3700X + cheap GPU.
https://www.cclonline.com/pc/gaming-pcs/delta-pro/ccl-delta-pro-gt-gaming-pc/0704080113/
And that's probably overkill on the CPU (8-cores/16-threads) & RAM.

Many thanks. I am taking your advice.
I will probably use the new machine as my fast machine, and use my Nov 2016 PC as my daily worker, transferring programs over a period to that, and then junk the Komplett.
In the last hour I sent an e-mail to CCL Computers support asking about delivery in the coronavirus crisis.
"Please be aware that there might be a delay in answering your ticket due to staff shortages caused by the COVID-19 virus, but we will get back to you as soon as we can."

This is my recent PC history CPU ratings
CPU Rating Better by Bought
Ryzen 7 3700X 22,757 x 13.0 Apr 2020?
i7-6700 @ 3.4 8,089 x 4.6 Nov 2016
Q6600 @ 2.40 1,749 1.0 Feb 2008

Cuddlesworth

This is certainly a interesting thread and my SQL nerves are jingling. Its syntax is so similar.

The software your using(Foxpro) is pretty much single threaded and it's going to be 32bit, due to its age.
It's only going to use 1 thread, more cores is pointless.
It's only ever going to max out 4 gig of ram.

I doubt the other software(canned in 2000) is any different.

I would be surprised if you saw much if any of a improvement from upgrading from a 6700k, it's not a bad CPU single threaded. I doubt its disk either, if you are running via that Crucial SSD. It might just be that the old of the software means that it doesn't scale. There is a reason why SQL took off and foxpro didn't.

Have you tired looking at resource monitor to see where the system is being held up?(Choose Start→All Programs→Accessories→System Tools→Resource Monitor)Might be worth looking into.

Are you backing up this important data?

The Tetrarch

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

I would be surprised if you saw much if any of a improvement from upgrading from a 6700k, it's not a bad CPU single threaded.
Have you tired looking at resource monitor to see where the system is being held up?(Choose Start→All Programs→Accessories→System Tools→Resource Monitor)Might be worth looking into.
Are you backing up this important data?

Yes, I have two external drives but have to confess I do not have a backup schedule. I tend to create a directory with a date name e.g. 2020_02_Feb, and copy out the data directories to that.
The data is not very important/unique, but horse names, dates of birth, parentage, have been thoroughly checked against books that cover the breed from about 1700 to date.

My pedigree analysis (i.e. extract from each pedigree) was checked against individual horse ratings for 159,000 horses and statistically tested. There is a relationship good at the 5% or 1% level i.e. the link was not chance/random. I was following work done in the 1950s on 1,400 horses (by hand on paper) and in the 1990s on 200 horses. I thought those samples inadequate. I added a few ideas.
I wrote the programs and tested them in the first six weeks of 2017. Much of the work is data collection. I spent the last months of 2016 filling gaps in the pedigrees of 40,000 horses - very slow work using books and the internet. You could have a full set of stud books for Britain/Ireland but ancestors in a pedigree could be USA, France, Australia, Italy, Germany and more.
In December 2017 I bought a mare with the intention of breeding a foal to prove my work. They say in racing "paper does not run fast". Unfortunately in 2018 and 2019 she did not get pregnant. I bought a second mare and she is expecting a planned foal in a few weeks. The earliest that foal will run is 2022 or 2023 (if it is a good physical specimen). This is a long game.
My big analysis a few times a year is this - take the ~3,000 mares in the breeding stock sales, match them with 600 stallion at stud in IRE, GB, FR for 3,000 x 600 = 1.8 million possible foals. Run the program over these and pick the best "foal"". Buy the mare and send her to the stallion. Wait.

I have looked at the resource monitor a bit when things are running but would not know if anything is a bottleneck.
The i7 runs the programs almost exactly three times faster (1/3 the time) than the Q6600.

Although I know FoxPro is old, so am I, and I would not relish getting onto the foothills of a steep learning curve of another product.

No response from CCL Computers. Perhaps they are not at work.

Cuddlesworth

The Tetrarch wrote: »

I have looked at the resource monitor a bit when things are running but would not know if anything is a bottleneck.
The i7 runs the programs almost exactly three times faster (1/3 the time) than the Q6600.

Although I know FoxPro is old, so am I, and I would not relish getting onto the foothills of a steep learning curve of another product.

No response from CCL Computers. Perhaps they are not at work.

Backups are still backups. I'd consider a external drive, power surges can blow a PC away in very rare circumstances, drives and all. In that case, a external drive used once a week is unlikely to be powered up.

The difference between a q6600 and the I7 you have is night and day, no argument there. I've owned both. The difference between that I7 and a new AMD or Intel CPU for your specific circumstances isn't really all that much. I don't think you would see more then a 10-20% performance boost, if even. Reason is, cpu's kinda hit a bottleneck in terms of raw speed a few years back. So they added more cores to them, eg that "threadripper" 1920 cpu is 16 cores vs your 6700k at 4. But your only ever going to use a single core and like I said, they haven't really been getting faster.

Basically I think it would be a waste of money to upgrade. You won't get much out of it.

Good luck with the horse breeding though. Hope it works out for you.

Edit, if you are going to upgrade regardless a Intel 9700k or 9900k would probably work out the best for you. But it's like trying to nail boards with a sledgehammer.

The Tetrarch

This afternoon I thought I would start my faster i7 PC and run MicroSoft FoxPro on it. The idea was to look to see which CPU cores were active.
The FoxPro .EXE file was missing. The FoxPro directories were there. No FoxPro.
I went looking for the original FoxPro disks (in a DVD case) but can not find them. They were with a collection of other original disks. :mad:
In November 2019 when I was getting the old drive C: cloned I brought the original disks with me. I have the cardboard box with the other original software, and a hard disk I had removed when putting in the SSD. After searching the house for about three hours I sent an e-mail asking did I leave the FoxPro original disks behind.

In other news CCL Computers sent me an e-mail this morning saying it is business as usual, building PCs and shipping them.

The Tetrarch

Found the FoxPro disks in a press in the side entrance.
I was all over the place looking, in the attic, kitchen presses.
Too frazzled to try to reinstall tonight.

Lu Tze

The Tetrarch wrote: »

Found the FoxPro disks in a press in the side entrance.
I was all over the place looking, in the attic, kitchen presses.
Too frazzled to try to reinstall tonight.

Can you read your data files in other programs? Or export to another format? Just incase something like this really happens and you lose years worth of data

Homelander

Can I just say superb input by Cuddlesworth, it's what makes this forum truly great. Experts on hand to deal with unique niche situations that general PC experts are mostly clueless in.

The Tetrarch

Lu Tze wrote: »

Can you read your data files in other programs? Or export to another format? Just in case something like this really happens and you lose years worth of data

I have FoxPro on my older PC, and it is working there.
The data can be read by Excel 2003 (only 65,536 lines) which I keep as you can write .dbf files from that version of Excel. My Excel 365 bought in the last year does not do that. Progress?
Why keep old Excel 2003? The horse sales companies produce their auction sales catalogues in book form (paper) and also in pdf and Excel.
Open their Excel file in Excel 2003, export it to .dbf, then start to fill in the pedigree gaps.
They only give the horse name, its sire, its dam and her sire (4 horses).
I previously analysed 126 ancestors for each horse, now am working on 2,046 ancestors for each.

I think I have Access in Office 365 but I have not used Access since 2006. That might take in my data. Back in 2006 and earlier Access was the database in work and I found it limiting.
Then Access would only work with files in memory. I remember splitting a file into six, having to work on each file separately, then reversing that.

The older Komplett PC is my working PC, the faster i7 PC is to power through big analysis. Copy the programs from the Komplette to a memory stick, copy onto the i7 PC.
The newer i7 PC (Nov 2016) had problems starting today. Lots of Windows repair and reboots. For some reason the monitor (new) also gives problems. The PC had not been used since December 2019. The FoxPro .EXE on that PC was missing.
I have data backed up on two large capacity external drives (biggest is 3.63 TB), probably about twenty copies of the data and the programs I've written over a few years.
As I write I am copying out the data files, 14,037 items, to the external drive, saving the programming of the last few weeks, and recent data updates.

The data isn't unique. What is important to me is the accuracy of the data, and I have written little utility programs that check the data - a bit like weeding a garden.
I was in despair this afternoon before I found the original FoxPro disks this evening. I moved house about 18 months ago - did I throw out the disks?
This afternoon I googled dBase and learned it is GBP 350 a copy - a substitute for FoxPro if needed.

Before I worked on the present program I analysed horses in conventional fashion e.g. do winners of big races on the flat (Group races) produce Group race winners when they go to stud? Not really. Only about 13% do. I collected Group races results from 1900 to 2015 (tens of thousands of races) for IRE, GB, FR, GER, ITY, USA for this, and their pedigrees.
Another was: is their a connection between the ratings of ancestors of a horse and the rating of the horse. Yes, from the parents, but loose, with a big spread of values. From the grandparents and further back, speed is not inherited .... UNLESS .... the inbreeding is of the correct type - what I am doing now.

Cuddlesworth

http://www.imgburn.com/ - Will let you build a image file(.iso) from the disks. Put them on the external drive too with the serial in a text file. .

The Tetrarch

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

TBH it sounds like you would do fine with a Ryzen 7-3700X + cheap GPU.
https://www.cclonline.com/pc/gaming-pcs/delta-pro/ccl-delta-pro-gt-gaming-pc/0704080113/

I bought the recommended AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is a few minutes ago, adding a cheap monitor, and paying a little extra on CPU cooling.

My i7 is running a big analysis today, only to see that the reinstalled FoxPro is behaving, and to get a timing for the big file.
A clunky way to process the data faster is to split the load file in two, run half on the i7, and half on the newly purchased AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, and stitch the two results file together later.
I assume running FoxPro twice on one PC will only result in one copy waiting for the other, and no increase in throughput.

Cuddlesworth

The Tetrarch wrote: »

I bought the recommended AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is a few minutes ago, adding a cheap monitor, and paying a little extra on CPU cooling.

My i7 is running a big analysis today, only to see that the reinstalled FoxPro is behaving, and to get a timing for the big file.
A clunky way to process the data faster is to split the load file in two, run half on the i7, and half on the newly purchased AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, and stitch the two results file together later.
I assume running FoxPro twice on one PC will only result in one copy waiting for the other, and no increase in throughput.

I googled it and it seems like you can just launch the program over and over again. In theory you could run roughly 8 open foxpro windows on the current machine or 16 with the new AMD chip.

If your reading and writing to the DB though, your going to see issues. If it's just reading the DB and generating results, then can't see why it wouldn't work.

The Tetrarch

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

I googled it and it seems like you can just launch the program over and over again. In theory you could run roughly 8 open foxpro windows on the current machine or 16 with the new AMD chip.

If your reading and writing to the DB though, your going to see issues. If it's just reading the DB and generating results, then can't see why it wouldn't work.

If I can run FoxPro a number of times I can split the horses I am analysing (the load file being tested today is 1.4 million) into smaller pieces.
The programs I wrote are small, the database with the 620,000 ancestors is only 94KB (in a trimmed down form), so it should be easy to put eight or more versions in different directories / on different PCs.
When they are all calculated (eight+ results files) it should be easy to append the results files into one.
It will be worth a try.
Running an ancestor file in the new version that is 16 times that of the old version must slow things, but if I can split the load file (and results file) into 8 or more pieces, and run it on two fast PCs it would be ok.

The Tetrarch

The new PC was ordered 8th April and was due for delivery today 29th April.
The PC is in transit from CCL Computers.

This is the message on the courier website
"There's a delay with your parcel due to unprecedented volumes of online shopping. We expect to deliver your parcel within the next 5 days, and we will update you here as soon as your parcel is out for delivery."

Over the last few weeks I speeded up my program by a factor of 3 or more by reducing the number of data accesses. I changed the data to put more data in each record (8 times more).

KillerShamrock

The Tetrarch wrote: »

The new PC was ordered 8th April and was due for delivery today 29th April.
The PC is in transit from CCL Computers.

This is the message on the courier website
"There's a delay with your parcel due to unprecedented volumes of online shopping. We expect to deliver your parcel within the next 5 days, and we will update you here as soon as your parcel is out for delivery."

Yeah DPD? i have the same for my parts, id say its just a standard thing they are putting up cause of sheer volume passing to help avoid complaints and stuff.

The Tetrarch

My new PC arrived in DPD Athlone on 29th April. Now 5th May and no delivery to Dublin.
I found this from 7th April
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2020/0407/1128987-dpd-ireland-reports-increase-in-online-deliveries/

Tij da feen

The Tetrarch wrote: »

My new PC arrived in DPD Athlone on 29th April. Now 5th May and no delivery to Dublin.
I found this from 7th April
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2020/0407/1128987-dpd-ireland-reports-increase-in-online-deliveries/

I recently got some bits from CPL via DPD. I had no update after Athlone until it was out for delivery in my area. (I'm in Cork and there was no intermittent update in Dublin etc..)

KillerShamrock

The Tetrarch wrote: »

My new PC arrived in DPD Athlone on 29th April. Now 5th May and no delivery to Dublin.
I found this from 7th April
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2020/0407/1128987-dpd-ireland-reports-increase-in-online-deliveries/

Ah here I had no update either their, customer service is non existent, until this afternoon I get a text and time for arrival and bam 4 on the dot the delivery driver arrives with my scan order... well half of it.
I asked he said nope I only have one box. I point out that on the dpd site it says 2 boxes and even on the side of the box I did get says 1 of 2. The site says it's delivered not just 1 box. I hope it arrives tomorrow seen as it all came from one place it really should arrive together.

They really don't seem to be doing much to handle the extra load imo will pay extra to avoid dpd in future.

Homelander

I bought something via DPD the other day and it was delivered from UK in two days.

Maybe they prioritise "big" customers or something? I mean the companies they're shipping for.

KillerShamrock

KillerShamrock wrote: »

Ah here I had no update either their, customer service is non existent, until this afternoon I get a text and time for arrival and bam 4 on the dot the delivery driver arrives with my scan order... well half of it.
I asked he said nope I only have one box. I point out that on the dpd site it says 2 boxes and even on the side of the box I did get says 1 of 2. The site says it's delivered not just 1 box. I hope it arrives tomorrow seen as it all came from one place it really should arrive together.

They really don't seem to be doing much to handle the extra load imo will pay extra to avoid dpd in future.

This exact thing has happened me. I had a delivery yesterday which was left at my front door by DPD. There was a box missing even though the tracking says both were delivered. Both part of the same order.

Managed to get someone on their chat and she said the other box is in the warehouse and will be delivered asap. They're just snowed under at the minute.

The Tetrarch

I got this e-mail at 09:57 (two minutes ago).

Your DPD UK order will be delivered today between 14:23 - 15:23